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American Express Co. has added three more third-party acquirers for its transactions. Innovative Merchant Solutions, an independent sales organization based in Woodland Hills, Calif., owned by Intuit Co.; PNC Merchant Services, a division of Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group Inc.; and iPayment Inc., a Calabasas, Calif.-based ISO, will use the AmEx OnePoint program to sign up merchants to accept AmEx transactions, according to an AmEx spokesperson. Specifically meant for small to midsize merchants, the program enables third-party companies to process AmEx transactions. Merchants can receive a consolidated statement containing their AmEx, Visa Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide transactions. If the processor also has a third-party acquiring deal with Discover Financial Services, Discover card transactions also can be consolidated into the single statement. Processor Elavon Inc. was the first to make OnePoint available to sales outlets, such as ISOs and referring banks, American Express says (CardLine, 3/3). First Data Corp. plans to introduce OnePoint to its ISOs in the third quarter, and Heartland Payment Systems Inc. already uses it for its direct sales staff. Other third-party processors have signed agreements to use the program, but they have not yet allowed their names to be released, the AmEx spokesperson says.
